I can only speak for my husband and myself, but we don't feel like we could do any of this parenting without our faith.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My faith informs everything I think and do. It's part of my value system. And to suggest that I can somehow separate and divorce that from the rest of me is not possible.
I have three goddaughters - I'm not sure why they trust me, because I have no experience with children - but I try.
My husband taught me so much about being a father. No matter what any of our children do, my husband will always believe in them, love them and accept them.
As a father of six kids and as a man who's been transformed by the power of the gospel, I would never just let my kids flounder and just sort of try to figure out their own way through life when I know that I've got the best guide on the planet - God and His word.
Thing is, I went to a born-again Christian high school, was brought up in a traditional Mormon family where these ideas about parenting are of structure and sacrifice. To think outside of that idea of family and parenting that I've grown up with is tough but also very freeing.
Families need a spiritual bond with one another and with God. God is the only way you're going to make it in life, the glue that holds everything together.
My faith is so strong that I believe that God made me 5-11 for a reason. For all the kids that have been told, no, that they can't do it, or all the kids that will be told no.
What's at the heart of my faith is a belief that there's a creator. That we're all children of the same God. And that, fundamentally, the relationship you have with your spouse is important and eternal.
You have to let individuals make their own choices and respect that, even if it's your own child. And that's what was taken away from me. My father passed away thinking I still had to go back to his way of believing.
I don't believe we own our children, they're their own souls who make their own choices, we just guide and support them.